Tag: relouis

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Beauty

On Trial in May 2017 – AVON, Relouis, Faberlic

The start of a new series? We shall see. I intend to pick up several products and give them a good use throughout the month. They could be completely new or they could be some poor unfortunate souls stuck in the limbo of my collection. Since I’m on a semi-no-buy, it will more than likely be the latter.

In May, however, all the products were new.

relouis complimenti! face powder

Relouis Complimenti! Compact Powder in 01 (lightest)

My old compact powder (coincidentally by Relouis as well) finally gave up the ghost, so I went and bought practically the cheapest available on the local market. As much as I was OK with the previous incarnation of Relouis compact powder, I am having trouble with this one.

  • It does not appear to be as finely milled;
  • it’s very picky in terms of brushes it wants to work with;
  • it doesn’t stay put for a long time;
  • although the coverage is very light, it piles on and starts to cake, especially around my nose, as the day goes by;
  • I do not enjoy the scent;
  • it seems to be going pretty fast – if you look closely into the photo below, you will see that the ridges of the pan are already visible. They’ve been visible since the first week of usage.

complimenti! face powder

The positive factors are:

  • packaging – it’s black, white, and modern-looking;
  • the compact opens up to 180 degrees;
  • the shade. Although it has a pink undertone (I don’t), it’s light enough and sheer enough to fit my skin tone.

I wanted this to be sort of a workhorse, and although I’ll continue using it until it’s gone, I might pick up something else in the interim – something that would actually suit my needs.

avon mark finishing powder

AVON Mark. Magix HD Finishing Powder

I’ve been setting my face with Isadora Loose Powder for a while, but was on the fence about the result I was getting. Although I will not be writing off Isadora Powder completely, AVON Mark. Magix HD Finishing Powder gives me a better result. It doesn’t alter the colour of my foundation as it is truly translucent. It’s not the most finely milled powder I’ve encountered, but it’s nice enough. Gives a matte finish. The sifter is nice too – I’ve barely had an overshake with it, and I’m a chronic powder overshaker. You can also close it, so you can take the powder with you and not worry about spilling it everywhere.

avon mark finishing powder dispenser

I’m pretty sure this will stay with me for a while, and if AVON still runs them when I’m out, I’ll be repurchasing.

faberlic express volume

Faberlic EXPRESS Volume Mascara

I bought this mascara a while ago, but only opened it this month. It was a blind buy, so to say, and I had no idea the brush would be so small. So far, I’ve got mixed feelings about this: Sometimes I feel like it gives me good length and good volume; other days I feel like it gives me relatively long, but messy and spiky lashes with little to no volume. As it ages, it’s getting better.

No gripes with longevity, though. Stays put throughout the day.

faberlic mascara wand

Categories
Beauty

Recent Eye Makeup Products

mascara brow pencil eye liner

Isn’t this the greatest photo to ever grace the beauty blogging scene? It ought to be. Unfortunately, I couldn’t reshoot, because these were all empties that got thrown out the minute I snapped this picture.

Though I brought back the Outgoing! posts, there’s still a bit of a backlog of stuff I’ve used up when I wasn’t doing any empties sharing with you. These eye makeup products are one such thing.

Chanel Mascara, sample size

I suppose this has a more precise name, but I don’t know it. I loved using this, though I found the brush a bit unyielding and messy. My main gripe was that it dried out. so. fast. I don’t know if it was just my sample, or the air in my room, or something else, but seriously. I got this sample for free with a magazine, but I imagine how pissed I would have been if I had paid an indecent amount of money for a luxury mascara, only to find it barely alive about two weeks later.

Curious: How have Chanel mascaras fared for you? I want to invest in a big size one, but if it dries out in a couple of weeks, well, then I don’t want to any more. 😛

Relouis eyeliner pencil

Relouis eyeliner pencil has been my go-to brow pencil until I ran out of it. It was difficult to use as an eyeliner – rather low pigmentation, not a lot of staying power, the formula is just on that side of being a touch too harsh… – but as a brow pencil? Gimme. I think I’m going to repurchase it once I run out of my current OFRA brow pencil.

AVON DIVA Eyeliner

This AVON eyeliner was a purchase influenced entirely by nostalgia. Long time ago Oriflame came out with a similarly themed collection, and my mother bought me the entire range of that as a gift. When I saw this AVON offering I had thought of mum immediately, and had to snap it up. This is actually a very good eyeliner. It is a dark silver grey that is not matte but not sparkly either. Stayed put throughout the day. The brush was thin and easy to work with even for someone like me. It also lasted me a while and kept really well. Didn’t dry out one bit – and honestly, the only reason I’ve given it up was because it’s hella old. I don’t even want to tell you how old it was lest you shun me off the face of the beauty internets. This was a limited edition collection, but I would totally buy again.

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Beauty

FOTD #3: Matte Skin, Grape Lips.

fotd 3

One of these days I’m going to find a flattering selfie angle, and actually share photos of the result. For now, lookie how I arrange them products on lined paper, eh. Eh, eh?!

Face:

  • Foundation – Oriflame Matte Control Foundation
  • Face Powder – IsaDora Perfect Loose Powder
  • Concealer – Bourjois 123 PERFECT CC EYE CREAM

A discontinued version of the Oriflame Matte foundation. I swear, Oriflame‘s been rebranding like there’s no tomorrow. It’s an OK foundation with medium coverage, but I’m just not sure. When it comes out of the tube, it’s a bit on the yellow/ grey side, which makes me all giddy inside. Yes, I said grey, and yes, giddy. But when you apply it and it oxidises a bit, it a) becomes about a tone darker than in the tube; b) loses all the yellowness and greyness and goes pink. And I do not need pink undertones in my face makeup, nuh uh.

Why am I suddenly accenting about every other word with italics?

Moving on.

The concealer I used for undereye only. I wish it were a lighter shade. It’s an OK concealer, but I don’t think I’d be repurchasing it.

Eyes:

  • Eyeshadow Primer – Artdeco pure minerals Mineral Eyeshadow Base Sensitive
  • Inglot AMC Shine 49
  • Oriflame The ONE Colour Impact Cream Eye Shadow Petroleum Shine 30748
  • Oriflame The One Colour Match Eye Shadow Duo in Brown 30970
  • Avon Hollywood quad
  • Mascara – Oriflame HyperStretch Mascara
  • Oriflame Eyelash Curlers

Inglot was used all over the lid. It’s one of my favourite eye shadows ever. The Colour Impact Cream Eye Shadow is beginning to dry around the edges a little bit, I need to use it more often. It doesn’t last particularly long on the lid, so that limits my ability to wear it, especially since it’s such a deep shade of green. The brown duo doesn’t last long as well, but it’s a pretty neutral shade, so I wear it more often. I used the lightest colour in the Avon Hollywood quad in the inner corners of my eyes.

In all honesty, the colours looked much better together in my head. It worked, but it wasn’t exactly what I was going for.

Brows:

  • Relouis pencil
  • Avon Hollywood quad

Now that I used the lightest shade in the quad for the brow bone (not like I haven’t before, but you know), I keep thinking that the matte brown might work for brows themselves. I’m one of those lucky people who don’t need a lot of filling in or drawing, but it’s still good to give a few strokes here and there just to even things out, especially if you’ve got a full face of makeup going on.

Lips:

  • Oriflame Lip Impact Deep Berry 26573

This is the discontinued version of the Oriflame lip crayons. They have since then released the new ones that you don’t have to sharpen (yay), but I’m not sure what they’ve done to the formula. I’m going to try one soon and report on that.

I was going to do a separate post for each and every crayon I own, because I just love lip crayons like I used to love the damn Crayolas when I was a kid. This is a deep grape colour that’s perfect for autumn.

Categories
Beauty

FOTD #2: Bold lips, muted lids.

face of the day 2

Products used:

  • Foundation: MAC Studio Fix Fluid NW10
  • Powder: IsaDora Perfect Loose Powder
  • Highlighter: Giordani Gold Opulent Night Pearls 27115
  • Concealer: Artdeco Mineral Fluid Concealer in 04
  • Eye shadow Primer: Artdeco Pure Minerals Mineral Eyeshadow Base Sensitive
  • Eye Shadow: AVON True Colour in Lace Hues
  • Brows: Relouis Eye Pencil in 02
  • Lipstick: L’Oreal Infallible Never Fail Lip Colour in Garnet 750
  • Mascara: Maybelline The Falsies Volum’ Express Flared Mascara

I’ve had this lipstick since ever. It’s expired by now, so I think I’m going to let it go during my next monthly clean-out. Or perhaps just place it in a separate compartment where I keep all my nostalgic purchases. It’s a good lipstick, but for it to work your lips need to be in very good condition. It will highlight every flake and every dry patch, and while the balm on top will soothe and smooth, it will not really affect the visual. For some reason I was under the impression that this product was discontinued, but it’s still available. As long as you don’t attack oily foods with abandon, it will last you for about 6 hours no problem, all while eating, drinking, talking, etc. with the lightest amount of caution. Word of warning, though — there’s no touching up this lipstick, only a complete reapplication.

The muted pink and blue in this quad are gorgeous, aren’t they? I love these colours so much. I went on a bit of a binge a few years ago and bought… six AVON eye shadow quads? They have since then rebranded the line and made the insides square, which diminished their obvious visual likeness to CHANEL. While I really like many of the colours — why would I buy them otherwise? — I am not at all impressed with the quality. The mattes are chalky, not easy to blend, nearly every single shadow is poorly pigmented, and all of them have excessive amounts of fall-out. Don’t expect them to last more than three hours without a primer either. With primer, they usually last about five, but begin to show signs of wear a bit earlier. Perhaps with the visual update came an update of the formula? I might want to find out a bit later, but for now I’ll be exploring other brands.

Something is to be said about using grey as eyebrow definer instead of brown. Brown can be very hard to match to your natural colouring. It’s either too red, or too coppery, or too dark, or too light. Most of the time it’s visible, especially in photographs. While grey is a true neutral colour. It’s non-colour, so defining your brows with grey works really well. There are only that many things to worry with grey — the desired lightness/ darkness and – a must – a matte finish. The aforementioned Artdeco make a great little grey eyeshadow that I really enjoyed using not only for its determined purpose, but also for brows and for slight contouring, especially of my rather prominent nose. I smashed the poor darling beyond all repair not long ago. It’s on my list of repurchases. I’ll be sure to write a review and swatch it once it’s done.

Try using grey for your brows, I’m pretty sure it’ll work.